After the war, he became a member of the Crimean Royal Knights, but would frequent Calill and Largo’s bar in Melior, and would often drink and get drunk by midday, however, and get scolded by not just Largo and Calill, but even by their daughter Amy as well. His superior, Geoffrey, who is constantly appalled by Makalov’s behavior, doubted his ability from the start and eventually gave up on him entirely. Such indulgency being to the point where several attest that, if was anyone other than Queen Elincia ruling over Crimea, Makalov would no doubt have been stripped of his knighthood.

With a self-indulgent and careless attitude, Makalov is fond of drinking, gambling and slackening off from work, resulting in him often traipsing into troubled waters, in the form of both lawful and unlawful forces alike. This has caused Marcia to constantly worry for his well-being, which she openly displays through angry outbursts of tantrums. Regardless, he is shown to lack common sense when it comes to gambling, as he never learns his lesson despite losing over and over again. Despite the major flaws in Makalov's character, he is not a bad person at his core. Rather, he is portrayed as one who just follows his convictions, as he feels no particular attachment to Begnion, nor does he hold any prejudice toward one’s race or social status. Such traits end up receiving special attention and exaggeration from Astrid who holds him in high regard.

While he is also known for being one to exploit his relationships with others, as can be observed through his numerous attempts to milk money out of Marcia, it has also been observed that he can be honest under certain circumstances and showing that he deeply cares for his sister. This can be seen in his support conversation with Astrid, where he returns the pendant he duped her into giving him after being chided by an enraged Marcia. Astrid will then reveal the true value of the pendant to Makalov, whereupon he will be shocked at her willingness to give up her wealth for his sake. In a Base Conversation, he stopped his sister from crying by getting her to laugh a little bit.

Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.

Makalov is primarily held back by two factors: his relatively late join time, and his middling base stats. Neither of these are major inhibitors to using him, however. He may be the latest of the potential paladins to join Ike's army, but he's still worth investing into simply by merit of being a mounted unit. In addition to high movement, being able to rescue other units and to make use of the canto ability make mounts in PoR even more useful than they are in other games, which is saying something. While his bases could stand to be better, they're far from unusable, and it won't be long before his high growths in key stats allow him to catch up. Weakening enemies for Makalov to kill and/or using Bonus EXP is recommended.

Upon promotion, the player will be able to choose between bows, axes, and lances for Makalov to use. As with all the other paladins (bar Kieran), Axes is the recommended option. While both lances and axes give Makalov reliable 1-2 range, steel axes being E rank means that he'll have a potent option for attacking right off the bat.

Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.

In this game, Makalov possesses well-rounded stats with all but Magic and Resistance having a relatively high chance of capping. His strongest stats are that of HP, Speed, Luck, and Defense. His Strength and Skill are somewhat mediocre, especially compared to that of fellow Gold Knights Titania and Kieran, though Kieran's Skill is not that much better, but Makalov possesses much higher Speed and Luck than Kieran, and slightly higher Speed, Luck, HP (base wise), and Defense than Titania. This makes him quite defensively well-rounded and as such will not die easily. In fact, physically speaking, he and Kieran are the most physically durable of all the Gold and Silver Knights (Geoffrey and Oscar possess a Defense and HP cap equal to theirs, but their growths in those two stats in tandem with their bases are lower). Makalov does not have the best offensive stats and many other sword users (such as Trueblades) would be more useful in the long run, Makalov's mount and high stats across the board make him useful in the long run, and can even be brought into the tower of guidance, and have the Vague Katti or Alondite blessed to give a further boost to his decent Defense.